Teknik_DC2
Proud Red Head
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2009
After we were done we started to head back down the mountain to head to our final portion of the tour. And that was to go shopping. While driving to the shopping centers we drove past a private school and even passed the local LDS Church that found to be interestingly enough in the top of a small building. Javier also told us more about his tour company knowjamaica.com and told us to look him up again if we ever made it back to the island. He told us that he was the #2 recommend tour on tripadvisor.com and that is something I verified to be true once we got home. We knew we had some amazing tour guides. But we felt even more blessed that we were guided to someone with such a great reputation on a day that we had no way of planning before hand. We were amazed that he made room for all of us passengers coming in from the Legend.
Once back in the city we were taken to our first shopping destination Soni's Plaza. This is a small shopping center made up of locally owned duty free shops. Javier took us to a shop of a friends where we even got an additional discount for being on his tour. We only had about an hour to shop so we had to hurry and not only find gifts for ourselves. But also for our families. We originally planned to do our shopping in Cozumel but with that falling thru Jamaica had to be our all or nothing stop. We found most of everything we wanted here. We quickly found tee shirts for our siblings, some hand made photo albums for our parents, a post card for our book (keep in my 4x6 postcards were VERY difficult to find in Jamaica), and I even found me a pair of fake Oakley Sunglasses (I buy a pair on each cruise). However as time quickly drew to and end Kiera still hadn't found something for her. She wanted a new purse but couldn't find a style she wanted and all the shops started to be very repetitive of the stuff they sold. Unfortunatly she ended up leaving this shopping center without finding something for herself.
Most everyone on the bus was done with shopping at this point but Kyle and Valisa had one more stop we needed to make that everyone agreed would be ok. We needed to stop at the Taj Mahal shopping center so Kyle could go get a shirt at the Hard Rock. That ended up being the big bonus for him as it was a Hard Rock location he didn't plan on going to on this vacation so he got an extra shirt out of it. It also gave Kiera and I a chance to run (literally) thru all of the stores in this shopping center to find her something to take home. However just like the other shopping center it was all the same junk and she came away empty handed.
After the short stop at the Hard Rock the tour was over and we made our way back to our ship. So what can I say about our day. We came into this day and country not knowing what to expect. For months I planned our activitys to our scheduled stops but never thought they would be cancelled. We came into Jamaica blind with a hope that we would be able to make the best of it. And boy did we. We had an amazing time in Jamaica. How blessed are we that we not only found an excellent tour guide but we were able to get on the tour of the #2 rated tour in the city. We climbed waterfalls, played on the beach, treked thru the rain forest, meet some interesting locals, and still got most of our shopping done. We truely made the best out of this blind port that we could and I don't think it would have gone any better even if I planned it for months on end.
However dispite the amazing time we had in Jamaica it is one of those places we don't care to ever go back to. As i've said the island is very pretty. One of the prettiest i've seen. However the poverity level is very low here and in some areas it was down right scary. Kyle and Valisa actually walked down to take a picture at the LDS church which was 2 blocks from the shopping center and they said they never feared more for there lives then they did at that time. The people were way too pushy and some got very scary when you told them no or wouldn't walk down that dark alley way with them to buy there weed. Its a very lovely island but we don't plan to go back any time soon. We feel bad for the people and it really teaches you to not take what you have for granet.
We were soon back on board the ship and after dropping off our stuff in our cabin (Once again loved being on Deck 1 for this reason alone) we B lined it for the Lido buffet as we were now starving after being out on our Jamaican adventure all day. Most of the stations were closed by this point though so after eating a Turkey Wrap and Pizza we decided to go walk around Deck 10 to bid farewell to Ocho Rios before going back to our rooms to get ready for the evening.
While we were on the top deck the Liberty was pulling out for the day. This has to be not only one of my favorite photos from our cruise but one of my favorites i've ever taken. We also saw it to be pretty stormy out at sea in the direction that Liberty (and eventually us) would be heading.
Once back in the city we were taken to our first shopping destination Soni's Plaza. This is a small shopping center made up of locally owned duty free shops. Javier took us to a shop of a friends where we even got an additional discount for being on his tour. We only had about an hour to shop so we had to hurry and not only find gifts for ourselves. But also for our families. We originally planned to do our shopping in Cozumel but with that falling thru Jamaica had to be our all or nothing stop. We found most of everything we wanted here. We quickly found tee shirts for our siblings, some hand made photo albums for our parents, a post card for our book (keep in my 4x6 postcards were VERY difficult to find in Jamaica), and I even found me a pair of fake Oakley Sunglasses (I buy a pair on each cruise). However as time quickly drew to and end Kiera still hadn't found something for her. She wanted a new purse but couldn't find a style she wanted and all the shops started to be very repetitive of the stuff they sold. Unfortunatly she ended up leaving this shopping center without finding something for herself.
Most everyone on the bus was done with shopping at this point but Kyle and Valisa had one more stop we needed to make that everyone agreed would be ok. We needed to stop at the Taj Mahal shopping center so Kyle could go get a shirt at the Hard Rock. That ended up being the big bonus for him as it was a Hard Rock location he didn't plan on going to on this vacation so he got an extra shirt out of it. It also gave Kiera and I a chance to run (literally) thru all of the stores in this shopping center to find her something to take home. However just like the other shopping center it was all the same junk and she came away empty handed.
After the short stop at the Hard Rock the tour was over and we made our way back to our ship. So what can I say about our day. We came into this day and country not knowing what to expect. For months I planned our activitys to our scheduled stops but never thought they would be cancelled. We came into Jamaica blind with a hope that we would be able to make the best of it. And boy did we. We had an amazing time in Jamaica. How blessed are we that we not only found an excellent tour guide but we were able to get on the tour of the #2 rated tour in the city. We climbed waterfalls, played on the beach, treked thru the rain forest, meet some interesting locals, and still got most of our shopping done. We truely made the best out of this blind port that we could and I don't think it would have gone any better even if I planned it for months on end.
However dispite the amazing time we had in Jamaica it is one of those places we don't care to ever go back to. As i've said the island is very pretty. One of the prettiest i've seen. However the poverity level is very low here and in some areas it was down right scary. Kyle and Valisa actually walked down to take a picture at the LDS church which was 2 blocks from the shopping center and they said they never feared more for there lives then they did at that time. The people were way too pushy and some got very scary when you told them no or wouldn't walk down that dark alley way with them to buy there weed. Its a very lovely island but we don't plan to go back any time soon. We feel bad for the people and it really teaches you to not take what you have for granet.
We were soon back on board the ship and after dropping off our stuff in our cabin (Once again loved being on Deck 1 for this reason alone) we B lined it for the Lido buffet as we were now starving after being out on our Jamaican adventure all day. Most of the stations were closed by this point though so after eating a Turkey Wrap and Pizza we decided to go walk around Deck 10 to bid farewell to Ocho Rios before going back to our rooms to get ready for the evening.
While we were on the top deck the Liberty was pulling out for the day. This has to be not only one of my favorite photos from our cruise but one of my favorites i've ever taken. We also saw it to be pretty stormy out at sea in the direction that Liberty (and eventually us) would be heading.